Feb
5
“The death of Dynamips: they’ve got it all wrong” from Ivan Pepelnjak
Filed Under CCIE General | Leave a Comment | by CCIE Journey
A good read if you were starting to get worried about Dynamips atleast for now 
Today I really wanted to write a deeply technical post (for example, Joe Cozzupoli sent me working configs for QPPB in Inter-AS MPLS VPN environment), but a gem from the SearchNetworking site caught my undistracted attention: they claim the licensing changes introduced in IOS release 15.0 target illicit use of Cisco IOS by Dynamips. The story quotes two of my blogger friends: Stretch and Greg (congratulations to both !!!). Each of them makes very valid points (I am wholeheartedly supporting Stretch’s plea for educational licenses), but somehow the story’s author managed to mix ingredients from their stories to come to a sensational (and totally wrong) conclusion (with a great headline).
Jan
31
I Always Develop ADD When I Read QOS
Filed Under CCIE General | 1 Comment | by CCIE Journey
No matter how hard I try, I can only do so many pages at a time before my attention starts to drift away. I did manage to get through a good amount of notes and reading today. QOS buried me on my lab attempt and I really need to make sure that doesn’t happen again. Between QOS and Security I should have enough to keep me busy this week. I was going to start again with switching and move from there, but I don’t feel like I need to start over from the beginning. Everything is still very fresh in my head, and going through my notes and labs on the core topics will give me a better idea on what I need to go over on those topics. I knew if if my brain thought I was starting again from scratch there would be no way I could keep it under my total control 
Hopefully this week I can lab both of these up with INE’s workbook I and move ahead.
Now I have to decide what date I would like to make another attempt at the lab. I won’t pay and schedule this time unless I feel really good about it. Labs dates seem to be fairly open right now. You could pick one up for February 2nd if you wanted to tonight. The biggest obstacle will be my wife’s due date of July 14th. The worse part is the mobile lab will be in Toronto Canada July 16th. Toronto is a whole hour and a half drive from my house. I just can’t risk my wife deciding to go into lab during that week… With RTP closed until July if I want to attempt the lab sooner I will have to fly out to San Jose CA. I will have to see where I am after I attend INE’s 6 day bootcamp.
Jan
23
New and Improved Advanced Technologies Class on Demand Arriving over @ INE
Filed Under CCIE General | Leave a Comment | by CCIE Journey
Good news for current End to End customers or those that just have the COD series!
New and Improved Advanced Technologies Class on Demand Arriving
By Anthony Sequeira, #15626
INE is thrilled to announce the arrival of a new Advanced Technologies Class on Demand series!For years, this product has served as the (Tier 1) foundation for INE students’ journeys to CCIE certification. With some new instructors, and a stricter adherence to Version 4 exam topics, here are the upcoming modules you can expect through February, 2010.
Week of Jan 25, 2010
Switching
Frame RelayWeek of Feb 1, 2010
HDLC
PPPWeek of Feb 8, 2010
GRE
RIPv2
OSPFWeek of Feb 15, 2010
EIGRPWeek of Feb 22, 2010
BGP
Jan
14
Google Haiti Response Donation Page
Filed Under CCIE General | Leave a Comment | by CCIE Journey
I just wanted to post this link for anyone looking to donate and help out the people of Haiti deal with this disaster. The page has links to many different relief organizations you can donate to.
Google Disaster Relief in Haiti
I also received this through email to post:
” Hey, I read your post today mentioning how to donate for disaster relief to Haiti. I don’t know if you’ve seen this, but the international non-profit group CARE already has over 100 of its workers on the ground in the country and the organization is also raising money to deliver aid to the 3 million people affected by the disaster. The group has been there since 1954 and they have the infrastructure in place to begin giving aid immediately:
I thought this might interest you and your readers. Thank you for any coverage
you can give.”
Jan
12
Status Update 01.12.2010
Filed Under CCIE General | 5 Comments | by CCIE Journey
“Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better. Don’t wish for fewer problems, wish for more skills. Don’t wish for less challenges, wish for more wisdom.” – Earl Shoaf
I think that quote pretty much sums everything up to this point. It is definitely time to move forward once again. I have been idle for far too long. I haven’t really done much since failing my first attempt this past October. I had some decisions to make as to what to do for equipment and material. In that end I am moving forward with my Narbik workbooks, and my INE end to end program. The biggest factor in all of this is equipment. I have Dynamips running on my Mac Mini bridged out to real 3560’s for Narbik’s and a full blown rack for my INE material. The INE rack was easy to update since I already had a 1841 router in the rack. Just used two more 1841 spares to update the rack. Budgets are tight right now, I have to make the most use of what I have available already. To make use of any other vendor material would of added another cost to everything. Also, I worked it out to receive a bootcamp in exchange for the INE banner that I have on the site. So I will be attending one of their camps in the next few months to really get moving. That in itself does not limit or influence blog posts or experiences with any material used by INE, or anyone else.
One thing I really need to do is sit down and work a plan out. I don’t even know where to begin! A good amount of the core material is still fresh in my head. Do I start with MPLS and my weak points? Do I start again with the five day COD to refresh? Do I work with INE’s workbook I and Narbik’s 2.0 and hammer down that way? Do I work right from the blueprint top to bottom? I am honestly not sure. I do have the new forth edition of the written guide as well I want to read through. Either way I have been fighting this day off for a few months, but it is time to simply move forward…
Dec
24
Merry Christmas to everyone out there celebrating!
Filed Under CCIE General | Leave a Comment | by CCIE Journey
and have a good New Years!
Dec
4
FRTS Can Be A Lying Whore
Filed Under CCIE General | 2 Comments | by Joe
Some of you may have caught this over on groupstudy where I posted last week. I thought it would be nice to share it here on CCIE Journey as well. We all know that in FRTS the formula that is always supposed to hold true is this:
Tc = Bc / CIR
With this simple formula we can calculate everything we need to know, and all the math works out…according to every book and Cisco doc I have ever read. What they don’t tell you about are the limitations of the traffic-shaping. For instance…
R2(config-map-class)#do sh run int s0/1/0 | i frame-relay
encapsulation frame-relay
frame-relay class foo
frame-relay traffic-shaping
frame-relay map ip 100.100.100.5 205 broadcast
no frame-relay inverse-arp
R2(config-map-class)#do sh run | beg map-class
map-class frame-relay foo
frame-relay cir 768000
frame-relay bc 80007
With this setup, I expect the long standing formula Tc = Bc / CIR to hold true. Therefore Tc should be equal to 80007 / 768000 = 0.10417578125 seconds = 104ms rounded down and indeed it is
R2(config-map-class)#do sh traffic
Interface  Se0/1/0
Access Target Byte Sustain Excess Interval Increment Adapt
VC List Rate Limit bits/int bits/int (ms) (bytes) Active
205 768000 10000Â 80007 0 104 9984 -
However, as soon as I cross the Bc boundary of 80007 and set it to 80008 my Tc is changed to what appears to be (Bc / CIR) / 2 !!! WTF?
R2(config-map-class)#do sh traffic
Interface Se0/1/0
Access Target Byte Sustain Excess Interval Increment Adapt
VC List Rate Limit bits/int bits/int (ms) (bytes) Active
205 768000 5000 80008 0 52 4992 -
As you can see the Tc has been set to 52 ms which just so happens to be 1/2 of the previous value of 104. As it turns out, it appears there is a limit in the IOS that only allows you to have up to a 10,000 Byte Limit. The byte-limit is the number of bytes you can send per Tc. So if we send 80007 bits per Tc (The Bc) we send 80007 / 8 bytes = 10000.87500 bytes which IOS will round down to 10,000 bytes. The minute we change Bc to 80008 the formula for how Tc is calculated is dynamically changed.
Tc = Bc / CIR. Tc = 80008 / 768000 SHOULD give us a Tc of 104ms but it doesn’t. It gives us a Tc of 52ms (exactly half). Why? 80008 / 8 = 10001 Byte limit. Apparently if you cross a 10,000 byte limit the formula for calculating Tc changes. Nice huh?
One other note: Try manipulating Bc or CIR sometime to give yourself a Tc of 250ms. You won’t be able to : ) It seems the IOS maxes out at a Tc of 249ms. If you try to go higher it will just make the Tc 125ms.
Nov
30
Status Update 11.30.2009
Filed Under CCIE General | 4 Comments | by CCIE Journey
Sitting here waiting for the first snow storm to hit of the year I thought it was time to post an update. As of right now I haven’t moved forward with anything. I have no plan because I really don’t know where to start up again. All my labs are all set to go, but getting that extra push to start again is becoming non-existent. Maybe it is the holidays? What material do I use, where do I start, do I want to start? Throw into the mix that my wife found out three weeks ago that she is pregnant – the pressure is on. There is no way I am going to be able to dedicate my time to studying once a newborn is here with a two year old running around. There is going to be very little lab time. Jake is a energy filled boy, he is non-stop and always on the go.
I have Narbik’s I can re-attend and my IPexpert bootcamps. I just don’t know if I want to leave home for a week at this point. With no one having even passed the current lab, I am not even sure how to prepare for it! Maybe I just need to sit down and chat with someone to see how they feel I should proceed. Maybe the wife will just threaten me with utter annihilation if I don’t start studying again soon…
Nov
3
Free Troubleshooting Lab From Narbik
Filed Under CCIE General | 1 Comment | by CCIE Journey
Here is Narbik’s post from GS
To All,
First of all I would like to apologize for the delay.
Secondly, please excuse any typos, I kind of rushed to get this out so you guys will enjoy the lab.
Once again there are no registrations, no sign-ins or any other requirements to download the lab.
Please go to
http://www.micronicstraining.com/classes/index.php?dispatch=categories.view&category_id=93
And then, click on *CCIE Routing and Switching Trouble Shooting Workbook* and then, click on *Download FREE sample chapter*.
Please let me know if you experience any problems.
The initial config file is also included. You need to have winrar to unzip the directory, it also includes the diagrams.
This lab is one of the 10 Troubleshooting Mock labs and hope it would NOT be a waste of your precious time. PLease go through and read the answers and see the steps that one has to go through to resolve a trouble ticket.
I have also included another FREE lab work book that you guys can download; it has 338 pages of good labs (They help reduce your blood pressure, whereas, the TS labs help reducing the cholestrol). You should see it there as well.
The security work book and the SP will be our next priority and they should be completed before the end of the year.
There will also be a FREE VOD on ZBFW, that should be finished within a week or so.
Enjoy and I hope to see you guys later.
–
Narbik Kocharians
CCSI#30832, CCIE# 12410 (R&S, SP, Security)
www.MicronicsTraining.com
Sr. Technical Instructor
YES! We take Cisco Learning Credits!
Nov
2
Status Update 11.02.2009
Filed Under CCIE General | 10 Comments | by CCIE Journey
November 2nd already! I have been at this for over two years now with one failed lab attempt. I would be lying if I said I seriously haven’t considered walking away from it all. It just isn’t interesting right now for me. I am having a real hard time trying to focus and getting back on track. I have tried reading some of the books, doc cd and web stuff, but nothing at this point is motivating
Right now I don’t even know what 4.0 material I should use. Should I keep pounding away with Narbik’s? Do I go back to his bootcamp a couple more times? I think the big issue right now is people are studying for V4 like they were for V3 and failing miserably. There hasn’t been one R&S pass yet. Everything you hear right now about the troubleshooting section is bad :/
Right now I don’t think anyone’s troubleshooting workbook is going to help you out. You either know the material and how to troubleshoot or don’t. I really need to keep fresh or I risk losing alot of the material I had in my head four weeks ago.
Now I am just looking for a direction to walk more than anything else…
